Burned
by GeekyLola
Summary: This is the story of Andromeda telling Bellatrix her big news. After marrying a Mugggleborn, Ted Tonks, she was burned from her family tree. While she doesn't mind this, she does miss her sisters. She's hoping that this conversation with Bellatrix will bring her sisters back to her...but it might not turn out how she hoped. Written for Diagon Alley II New Years Battle Challenge.


Andromeda stood in front of the Lestrange Manor, steeling herself against what she knew was about to happen. Taking a deep breath and reminding herself why she was doing this, Andy walked up to the door and knocked.

A small house elf answered the door. "Hello Miss, can Dumpy help you?"

"I am here to see my sister. Tell her that Andromeda has arrived."

"Oh yes, Miss. Mistress is being happy to see you. Let Dumpy show you to study before Dumpy get the Mistress." The house elf excitedly invited Andromeda in and showed her into the darkly decorated study.

Andy could tell by the little elf's welcome that it did not know the type of relationship she and Bella had now. It had been a year since she had been burned from the family tree, and even longer since Bella had looked at her with any type of kindness. But Andy was hoping that this news she was bringing would bring her sisters back to her. Bella would be the hardest sell for sure, but perhaps if she could gain her approval Cissa wouldn't be afraid of falling out of favor with Bella as well. Then they could all be close again.

Even as she thought it Andy knew she was being perhaps a bit too hopeful. But despite her disagreement with her sisters' beliefs, she loved them and missed them. Ted knew it too. It was the only reason he had allowed her to come here today. He was worried Bella would do something drastic when she found out, but Andy was confident that even if Bella was absolutely furious with her, she would never actually try to hurt her.

Dumpy came back, holding the door open, but looking much less excited than he had before. Clearly Bella had punished him for his error of letting her in without first asking. "Mistress will see you now." He whimpered.

Andromeda stood to follow the elf, but instead Bellatrix walked into the study. "What are you doing here?" she asked. The entire aura around her was as cold as ice.

"It's good to see you too, Bella."

"Don't call me that."

"Alright, Bellatrix. I came because I missed you, and Cissa."

"Well, if you want to come home you know what you have to do."

"I will not leave Ted. I love him."

"How can you say that!?" Bella's cold demeanor began to give way to her anger. Her voice echoed off the chamber walls and for a second Andy can see that maybe Bella was more hurt than she dared to let on.

"Because I do love him. He's loyal and kind and that means more to me than –"

"Than blood? You would give up your family for that Mudblood?"

"That is enough Bellatrix!" Andromeda could handle many things from her sister, but an insult at Ted was too much. "This is exactly the problem. You all are so hateful and cruel! If you could just look around you for a moment and realize how wrong those ideals are…Ted did great in school. He even surpassed me in some areas. How is he less than us if he has the capability to do better than us? His blood runs red just the same as yours and mine does."

"This family is pureblood, and we aim to keep it that way. You choosing to ignore that means you turned your back on this family. You're just like Sirius. Both of you are such disappointments! Do you know what it did to mother to see you with that filth?"

"You aren't even listening to me," Andy groaned. She shook her head and turned her eyes away from her sister. As her vision fell to the emerald velvet lounge chair just to the left of Bellatrix, Andromeda sighed. She knew by this point that Ted was probably right, nothing she was going to say would bring her sisters back to her. But she would say what she had come to, because she was not afraid of a fight, and she had a point to make. "I came here with something very specific to say to you."

"Then say it and leave. I have no time for blood traitors like you anymore. I thought maybe you had come to your senses when Dumpy first told me you were here, but clearly you haven't." The bite in Bella's voice was worse than the bite from the bitter cold wind outside.

"I'm pregnant." Andromeda pulled herself up to her full height, putting on the confident airs she had spent her whole life learning to wear with every step that she took. She wore that pride and confidence still, as a blood traitor, and her child would wear that confidence as a proud Halfblood.

"What?" The word was barely a whisper on Bella's lips. For the faintest second, Andy had mistaken it for caring. It was a shocked sort of quiet question, but it wasn't a happy shocked. The rage in her eyes was of a caliber Andromeda had never experienced before.

A sudden fear filled her body. Andromeda wondered if perhaps she had overestimated her sister's love. She had the very distinct feeling of being in danger. Instinctively she wrapped her hands over her stomach.

"You're pregnant? With that filth's child!? I can't have a good pureblood child, but you, who betrayed your family and married that Mudblood, you get to have a child!?" Bella's voice had steadily risen with each word and the room around them filled with that electric sort of feeling raw magic often gave off.

For Andy, the most shocking part of this exchange was the sudden knowledge that Bellatrix was unable to bare children. She wanted to ask when that happened. She wanted to comfort her sister, but the fury that filled the room made it clear that she would never get that chance.

"I'll kill you. I'll burn you alive!" Bellatrix screamed. Her eyes wild with hatred. "_Incendio__!_"

"_Immobulus!_" Andromeda spun out of the way of Bellatrix' attack and immobilized her sister, who had clearly not been expecting her reflexes to be so good. The heavy black curtain that had been behind Andy was burning. After putting it out she stepped over Bellatrix and started out the door. Before she left, however, she turned and looked down at her sister. "I will never be ashamed of Ted, or our child. But I cannot say the same about you."

With that she left. As she walked out into the cold winter air, Andy touched her belly lovingly. She was happy her baby would be born close to summer. She had always loved the warmer seasons, and she wanted the first things her child experienced to be the warmth of the world and a family who loved them. She wanted everything she never had for her child.

* * *

In May Andromeda gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Nymphadora. She didn't bother to send a letter to Bellatrix about it, but she did send one to Narcissa, hoping that perhaps she would be more accepting than Bellatrix had been. She never received a reply.


End file.
